Pope Francis, everyman chief of the Roman Catholic Church, dies at 88

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis, whose time as head of the Catholic Church was famous for an everyman humility and outreach efforts to individuals of disparate backgrounds and faiths, has died at 88, the Vatican has confirmed.

“At 7:35 this morning, the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the house of the Father. His entire life was dedicated to the service of the Lord and His Church,” Cardinal Kevin Ferrell stated on Monday.

Pope Francis was hospitalized for simply over 5 weeks starting in February 2025 to deal with what the Vatican initially stated was a respiratory tract an infection, for which he started receiving therapy. 4 days after his hospitalization, the Vatican revealed that Francis had been identified with bilateral pneumonia.

The pontiff’s well being remained precarious within the ensuing weeks, together with a “prolonged” asthmatic respiratory disaster that the Vatican stated required medical doctors to manage him supplemental oxygen, in addition to transfusions to deal with low blood platelets, that are cells that flow into within the blood and assist it clot. He additionally skilled two episodes of “acute respiratory failure” in early March, in accordance with the Vatican, that required “noninvasive mechanical ventilation” at evening to assist him breathe.

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Pope Francis was launched from the hospital and returned to the Vatican on March 23, the place his physicians stated he would require extra months of restoration. Two weeks later, he made his first public look since his discharge from the hospital, sitting in a wheelchair whereas utilizing supplemental oxygen as he briefly greeted individuals in St. Peter’s Sq.. He additionally made an look on Easter Sunday from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, following a earlier assembly with Vice President JD Vance.

Pope Francis was stated to be alert and conscious all through the well being episodes and infrequently posted messages on X, acknowledging the great needs despatched his manner.

“I would like to thank you for your prayers, which rise up to the Lord from the hearts of so many faithful from many parts of the world,” Francis posted on March 2. “I feel all your affection and closeness and, at this particular time, I feel as if I am ‘carried’ and supported by all God’s people.”

4 days later, the pope provided his first public feedback since his hospitalization within the type of a recorded audio message in Spanish that was performed in St. Peter’s Sq..

“I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your prayers for my health from the Square, I accompany you from here,” the pope stated. “May God bless you and the Virgin protect you. Thank you,”

Pope Francis’ respiratory well being was a lifelong subject for him; he had a part of one lung eliminated at age 21 due to a respiratory an infection. As he grew older, he started to expertise gastrointestinal points that led to a bit of his colon being surgically eliminated in 2021 due to intestinal irritation. He additionally started utilizing a wheelchair and cane in 2023 due to strained knee ligaments and a small knee fracture that made strolling and standing troublesome.

Because the chief of the Catholic Church, Francis captured the imaginations of believers and non-believers alike, along with his populist type giving the church’s message of social justice far higher resonance than that of lots of his predecessors.

Argentinian-born Jorge Mario Bergoglio grew to become the Catholic Church’s 266th pope and the primary ever from Latin America. He took the identify Francis after the well-known St. Francis of Assisi, who ministered to the poor.

Like his namesake, the pontiff earned a popularity for residing a humble life and eschewing the pomp of his predecessors. Whereas Pope Benedict XVI had a aptitude for papal trend, Francis selected the easy white cassock with few gildings for on a regular basis put on. When he was elected pope on March 13, 2013, he didn’t ship an aide to pay his lodge invoice in Rome, however took care of it himself.

He was additionally arguably extra approachable than his predecessors, identified to pose with vacationers for selfies and for permitting kids be a part of him on the popemobile throughout his weekly public viewers within the sq.. He as soon as welcomed a baby with Down syndrome to sit down subsequent to him, and held her hand whereas he delivered a speech.

Francis additionally selected to not dwell within the ornate papal flats, preferring as a substitute to reside with others within the easy quarters of the Vatican visitor home. Relatively than journey in a limousine, he made some extent of touring about in smaller, extra peculiar autos when leaving the Vatican and on his journeys.

He reached out to these on the margins of society, and to Catholics who felt alienated by church doctrine.

First Latin American pope

Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born on Dec. 17, 1936, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, one among 5 siblings. His father was an Italian immigrant employed as a railway employee, whereas his mom was the Argentine-born daughter of Italian immigrants.

Stricken with a lung an infection as an adolescent, Bergoglio finally had a part of his proper lung eliminated at age 21. He went on to carry varied odd jobs, together with working as a bouncer at a membership, sweeping flooring, and working checks in a chemical laboratory, earlier than deciding to affix the Jesuit order in 1958, changing into a priest simply shy of 12 years later.

The identical sense of social justice he embodied as Pope Francis may be traced again to when the pontiff was the archbishop of Buenos Aires. He made a reputation for himself then by reportedly main a easy life – getting ready his personal meals, residing in a spartan condominium and driving public transportation – eschewing the luxurious way of life usually related along with his place.

As archbishop of Buenos Aires, Francis in 2012 notably criticized monks who refused to baptize kids born out of wedlock.

“They are the hypocrites of today,” stated Francis. “They turn God’s people away from salvation. And that poor girl who could have sent her child back to the sender but had the courage to bring him into the world goes on pilgrimage from parish to parish to have him baptized.”

Outreach as pope

From the beginning, Pope Francis’ tenure was marked by a extra populist ministry than that of his predecessors, demonstrated each by his outreach to teams historically ignored or criticized by the church, and his broader efforts to reform and contemporize the church itself.

On his first journey after changing into pope, Francis selected symbolically to journey to the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa, in southern Italy, one of many first factors of entry into Europe for poor and determined refugees and migrants from North Africa, who threat their lives to make the crossing in usually unsafe vessels. He additionally used his first Christmas deal with as pontiff to name on individuals to “place ourselves at the service of the poor, make ourselves small and poor with them.”

In a February 2016 mass delivered on the U.S.-Mexico border, and with anti-immigrant sentiments on the rise, the pope referred to as for individuals within the U.S. and all over the world to maintain “open hearts” concerning immigrants fleeing violence and poverty of their homelands.

With the church beneath broadside criticism for sex-abuse scandals involving distinguished clergy, Pope Francis each met with and apologized to intercourse abuse victims, calling them “heralds of mercy” and acknowledging that the church had failed them, declaring, “God weeps.”

Francis additionally criticized the church itself for what he referred to as its obsession with points together with same-sex marriage, abortion and contraception, though he stopped wanting difficult the church’s conventional positions on them.

When a journalist requested him a query about homosexual monks on his first overseas journey in 2013, simply 4 months after his election, Francis shocked individuals along with his response: “If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?”

As just lately as August of 2023, Francis reiterated in feedback throughout World Youth Day in Portugal that the Catholic Church is for “everyone,” together with LGBTQ+ individuals, though they have been nonetheless excluded from the sacraments. The next December, Francis permitted a Vatican declaration titled “On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings” which famous that, whereas the church’s official coverage remained against same-sex marriage, “when people ask for a blessing, an exhaustive moral analysis should not be placed as a precondition for conferring it. For, those seeking a blessing should not be required to have prior moral perfection.”

Well being issues

Pope Francis’ respiratory well being was a lifelong subject for him; he had a part of one lung eliminated at age 21 due to a respiratory an infection. As he grew older, he started to expertise gastrointestinal points, together with a bout of diverticulitis that led to a 10-day hospital keep in July 2021, throughout which period a bit of his colon was surgically eliminated. He additionally started utilizing a wheelchair and cane in 2023 due to strained knee ligaments and a knee fracture that made strolling and standing troublesome.

On a flight house from a visit to Canada in July 2022, the place he had been utilizing a wheelchair, Francis hinted he must decelerate future travels and perhaps resign in the future.

“This trip was a bit of a test. It’s true you can’t do trips in this state, maybe we have to change a bit the style, reduce, pay the debts of the trips that I still have to do and reorganize,” Francis stated.

He added that “the door is open” for him to resign if he couldn’t keep it up.

Even so, Francis continued touring in 2023, with a complete of 5 journeys that 12 months regardless of growing well being points.

In January of 2023, then-86-year-old Pope Francis revealed his diverticulitis had returned however was being managed. The next March, he was hospitalized for 3 days with acute bronchitis.

“I am touched by the many messages received in these hours and I express my gratitude for the closeness and prayer,” Francis wrote on Twitter on the time.

In June of 2023, Francis was again within the hospital, the place he underwent three hours of stomach surgical procedure to deal with intestinal blockages attributable to scarring from earlier surgical procedures. That following November, the Vatican introduced that the pontiff had developed a “pulmonary inflammation that has caused some breathing difficulties,” and for which he was being handled with intravenous antibiotics. He subsequently canceled a deliberate journey to attend a local weather convention in Dubai.

Pope Francis’ well being continued to be a difficulty into 2024, prompting the cancellation of some occasions in late February of that 12 months as a result of what the Vatican press workplace described as “mild flu symptoms,” which additionally noticed him go to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital for what the Vatican referred to as “diagnostic tests.”

In January 2025, the Vatican introduced that Francis had injured his arm in a fall at his residence, struggling “a bruise to his right forearm, without fractures.” The Pope was seen utilizing a gentle sling to help his arm in {a photograph} launched by the Vatican.

Pope Francis continued to expertise respiratory points and was admitted to the hospital on Feb. 14, 2025 for what the Vatican described as “necessary tests” and was subsequently identified with a respiratory tract an infection, additionally in accordance with the Vatican, for which he started receiving therapy. 4 days later, the Vatican revealed that Francis had been identified with bilateral pneumonia, for which he was receiving “additional drug therapy.”

“Thank you for the affection, prayer and closeness with which you are accompanying me in these days,” the pope posted on X on Feb. 16.

Pope Francis subsequently suffered a “prolonged” asthmatic respiratory disaster on Feb. 22, in accordance with the Vatican, that required medical doctors to manage him supplemental oxygen, and that he remained in crucial situation. Francis had additionally obtained transfusions to deal with low blood platelets, the Vatican stated.

What occurs subsequent

A nine-day interval of mourning is predicted to be noticed. The Pope’s funeral might be held after his physique lies in state for public viewing in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Throughout this time, all cardinals beneath the age of 80 who’re eligible to take part are summoned to Rome to arrange for the key conclave contained in the Sistine Chapel to decide on the subsequent pontiff, a gathering that usually commences between 15 to twenty days after the pope’s dying.

The cardinal-electors will forged as many as 4 ballots in a single day. Black smoke from the Sistine Chapel’s chimney will point out an inconclusive vote, whereas white smoke will signify a brand new pope has been elected.

The brand new man chosen to steer the Catholic Church will then put together to make his public debut on the central balcony at St. Peter’s Basilica.

ABC Information’ Christopher Watson contributed to this report.